Hey NLRB, What’s the Problem?

Last year, the NLRB was late, very late to issue their annual report on their activities for 2011. The General Counsel released the 2012 report yesterday and there are no surprises – except that the Board Members and the Chair, Mark Pearce, still seem dead set on fixing a problem that the numbers continue to show doesn’t exist.

In 2012, 93.9 percent of union elections were conducted in 56 days or less from the time the representation petition was filed. This rate is above the Board’s goal of 90 percent and the 12th straight year the NLRB has exceeded its stated goal. Keep in mind, the ambush election rule that would speed up representation elections never went into effect last year due to litigation the NAM supported. The regulation was invalidated by the District Court last year and is before the DC Circuit of Appeals right now.

We’ve been asking the same questions and have yet to receive credible answers from this Board. What problem is the ambush election rule meant to fix? Who benefits from the rule change? Why should employees not have all the information they need to make an important decision like whether or not they want to join a union? To what, or whose, benefit is it to short-circuit employer’s rights?